The Internet, or World Wide Web, has an extremely large and ever growing amount of information stored on billions of web pages available for access by the general public. However, due to the sheer size and nature of how data is stored and accessed, it may be difficult—if not impossible—to access large portions of the information available on the World Wide Web unless the information can be adequately searched.
A number of World Wide Web search tools and services that provide Internet searching capabilities exist. These search tools and services typically require that a user submit a query including one or more search terms to a centralized search engine after accessing the search tool via the Internet. The centralized search engine compiles a search result that includes information about web pages that match the query by comparing the search request against a previously compiled index of Internet web pages against the query. The centralized search engine then returns the search result to the user.
The centralized search engine, in the process of receiving a query and returning a search result, acquires information including the Internet address from which the search request came as well as the search terms that comprise the query. The centralized search engine may collect such information for a variety of reasons. Thus, the search requests from a particular individual or an entity such as an organization, corporation, or governmental body may be accessible through the search engine along with the Internet address of the computer from which the query was made.
Such information, if accessed by undesired and unscrupulous parties, may compromise the privacy of the individual or entity. For example, a corporation involved in confidential development programs such as research and development for new products or processes may want to search the Internet for information related to those development programs. Competitors who have access to that type of information may be able to discern the entity's confidential business strategies and gain an unfair competitive advantage. While the centralized search engine providers may never deliberately provide such information to anyone, numerous situations have been made public where information has been accessed via the Internet by individuals or entities that were not intended to have access to that particular information.
Because an individual or entity may rely on Internet search tools as an important tool to accomplish a variety of tasks, the individual or entity is potentially susceptible to a loss of productivity if for some reason Internet search engines are not accessible for any reason. In addition, because Internet search tools and services are used by an extremely large number of individuals and entities, it is extremely difficult to provide information that caters to the needs of any one particular user. Thus, the Internet search tools available today may lack the type of security, personalization, and reliability that a particular user may require.
As technological advances have been made in the electronic data storage industry, more and more data can be stored on relatively inexpensive machines. It is believed that if current trends continue, the storage capacity on a small server or a personal computer may be sufficient to store a search engine index with information about billions of web pages, similar to the size of a current commercial centralized search engine index.
The discussion above is merely provided for general background information and is not intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.